There have been thousands of penalties called in the NFL over the past 15 years, but until Thursday night, there was one penalty that had NEVER been called in that span: Illegal forward handing.
In the first half of the Bears’ game against the Patriots, Chicago was flagged for that exact penalty. If you don’t know what “illegal forward handing” is: well, don’t worry, most people don’t, and that’s because it’s almost unpronounceable.
On the play, Caleb Williams took the snap and immediately handed the ball off to guard Joe Thuney. It was a trick play by the Bears and not only did it NOT work, but they lost five yards after the officiating crew threw a flag.
The reason you don’t see offensive linemen getting more handoffs is because in most cases, it’s against the rules. As the NFL rule book clearly states, “unless permitted by rule, passing the ball to a teammate is illegal.”
So what exactly does this mean?
- It is legal to make a forward handoff behind the line of scrimmage, but only to a player who is eligible to have the ball, such as a running back or a receiver. Handing the ball to an offensive lineman is legal, but only if it is a normal backward handoff.
- When the ball passes the line of scrimmage, you may not have a forward handoff under any circumstances to any player.
- You are also not allowed to have a forward handoff after a change of ownership. So if a player intercepts a pass, he cannot turn around and make a forward handoff to a teammate.
While you can’t have a forward handoff in those last two situations, you can have a backward handoff or pitch it back to a teammate once you’ve crossed the line of scrimmage or after a turnover.
Thursday night’s penalty marked the first time in 16 years that an illegal forward handoff was called in a game. According to NFLpenalties.com, the last time this flag was thrown came in a Packers-Lions game on October 3, 2010. In that game, Lions cornerback Chris Houston tackled Aaron Rodgers and was then flagged after he tried to hand the ball to a teammate in front of him.
This is one of the rarest penalties in the NFL and we all witnessed it on Thursday night.